CIVILISATIONS OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE LM A – 2025-2026

Alongside cathedrals, towers are widely regarded as the quintessential symbol of the Italian medieval city—almost the embodiment of its most authentic character. Historical surveys of family towers conducted in various cities have produced astonishing numbers: 186 towers were counted in Florence, around a hundred in Bologna, over two hundred—and possibly as many as three hundred—in Rome, far exceeding the eighty-three and sixty-four found in Genoa and Perugia, respectively. Sixty were recorded in Savona, thirty in Noli, and the list goes on. And these are only partial figures. It is no surprise, then, that in the early thirteenth century, an English traveler, gazing down from Monte Mario at a city scattered with towers and bell towers, compared Rome to a field of wheat stalks. This vertical urbanity was a distinctly Italian phenomenon. In other parts of Europe, towers—where they existed—were typically found only on city walls or as defensive structures attached to government buildings. The English traveler’s sense of wonder was fully justified.
This course examines and interprets this striking feature of the Italian urban landscape. What was the geographical and chronological distribution of this phenomenon? What specific architectural forms did this upward drive take? Which social actors were involved, and what resources and strategies enabled them to construct these towers? Most importantly, what were the underlying logics and deeper motivations behind this remarkable urban development?

1. Sandro Carocci, Le città delle torri. Un’anomalia italiana nell’Europa medievale, Roma, TorVergata University Press, 2025

2. Building and Conflict in Southern Europe (1000-1300), edited by Sandro Carocci and Federico Del Tredici, Brepols, 2026.

• P.R. Coss, The aristocracy in England and Tuscany, 1000-1250, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020.